The pain was worth the gain for Bobby Corcoran of Indian Hills, who picked a great day to run his best time (15:46).

MAHWAH — Bobby Corcoran wasn’t the fastest kid at the Lou Molino Bergen County cross-country Meet of Champions. He’s never come close to breaking 4:30 for 1,600 meters and his best 3,200 time is just about 9:55, a time bettered by at least 10 runners entered in Saturday’s race. And he hadn’t won a race all fall and was dethroned as the Bergen B group champion a week ago by teammate Matt Tuohy.

But the Indian Hills senior was the best runner at the 5,000-meter Darlington County Park course Saturday and handily won the title in 15:46, running his best time on a day when few boys could match the time they recorded a week ago.

He held off Old Tappan senior Ian Clarke, who set a school record of 15:51 and closed rapidly from eighth place midway through the race. Don Bosco, missing two of its top three runners because of injury, managed to place five runners in the top and win its eighth straight title, 52-85, over runner-up Indian Hills. Old Tappan edged Ridgewood for third, knocking the Maroons off of the podium for the first time since 2000.

"It’s my last time running here at Darlington and this is probably the place where I’ve run the most," said Corcoran, who ran down race leader Mike Higgins of Don Bosco about 2 1/2 miles into the race. "He went out very fast [4:48 for the first mile, and 10 minutes through two] and he was about 30-40 meters ahead at one point. But I started to move up on him the second time around in the woods and I could see he was losing it."

"I felt great today and thought I was finally back to where I was before I got hurt," said Higgins, who ran 4:14 and 9:35 last spring at 1,600 and 3,200 meters and was second in last year’s cross-country final. "But about 2 1/2 miles into the race, my body just shut down and I started getting passed." Higgins managed to finish sixth in just his second race back from a foot injury.

But the day belonged to Corcoran, second in the early going, but running a more conservative pace than the frenetic one set by Higgins. "I just love running cross-country because of the change of scenery and because I’ve never really liked running on the track," said Corcoran. "I’m kind of surprised that I won, because there was a lot of strong competition in the race."

Sophomores Will and Colin Daly of River Dell and Patrick Sullivan of Don Bosco followed Corcoran and Clarke across the finish line, with Sullivan leading a Don Bosco team that didn’t look much like the one that Bosco coach Kevin Kilduff envisioned at the beginning of the year.

"This year has been a unique experience for me as a coach," said Kilduff, "I’ve been coaching for 27 years and been the head coach for 10 and I never have seen a rash of injuries like the one we’ve had this year."

Yet despite being without four returning runners who all finished in the top 25 last year, including reigning champion Kyle Levermore, the Ironmen were never threatened with a lineup that included three sophomores and two juniors.

"I’m very impressed with our young kids," said Kilduff. "Maybe we expected one soph to make the lineup but we had three [Connor Nicholson was 17th and Luke Novak 19th] and one of our juniors [11th place finisher] Zack Weland played soccer as a freshman. It’s been a real challenge and they’ve stepped in beautifully a year before they had to, which bodes well for us in the future."